Our Church Family

Please
remember our church family in your daily prayers at mealtimes and during your
personal devotions. Continue to remember those young and old with ongoing
physical, spiritual, and emotional struggles.

Congratulations to Alice Scholing and Fenny
Stegerman as they celebrate their birthdays this Friday. Alice will be 86 and Fenny 71. To each of you we wish you a wonderful day
filled with our Lord’s richest blessings!

Albert Biel remains in the Lacombe hospital. May God
grant patience to Albert, Tilly and the family as he regains his strength.

Bethel News

Next Sunday, August 14th

Pastor L.E. Sackmann will lead us in worship in the morning and Elder August Luymes will lead our evening service.

From the Deacons: CRWRC East Africa Drought Response:

The worst drought in 60 years is threatening 12.4 million people – an increase of 800,000 people in Kenya in the last week. CRWRC is supporting 100,000 Kenyans until December with $7 million in food aid, drinking water, and animal fodder, and has expanded into Ethiopia and Somalia. The Canadian government will match (1:1) private donations received by September 16th and CRWRC is eligible to apply to this new CIDA fund. Through CFGB, CRWRC is guaranteed a 4:1 CIDA match towards the food aid portion. We as a congregation will be taking part in a collection next week for this worthy cause. Please prayfully consider making a donation. For more information please contact any of our Deacons.

Church secretaries’
summer hours:

For the next month or so
the church secretaries will be in the office on Fridays only from 9 a.m. to
3:30 p.m.

From the secretary:

Some office equipment has gone missing! Please who ever borrowed the paper cutter
please return it as soon as possible. Office equipment can not to be removed from the building.

Attention all musicians!

If you are
interested in growing musically or joining the music ministry at Bethel you are
invited to our second Music Workshop! It is going to be August 27th
and 28th more details will
come! No matter the level you are at musically, you are invited to have
fun, learn lots, and enjoy fellowship! Similar to last summer's workshop, you
will receive tools both to improve on your individual musical ability and to
grow together as a praise team! Hope to see you there! Evelyn Eisses and the Worship MLT.

Bethel Youth News

Bethel Youth
Retreat!

It’s that time of year again to
start thinking about the retreat! This
year’s event will be taking place on September 9th-11th
at Bar Harbour Retreat Centre on Buffalo Lake. It’s open to all students from grade 7-12 and we would encourage all to
invite a friend or two. Mark it on your
calendars! Registration forms and
Liability/Consent forms can be found in the front foyer table or get them from
any youth leader! For more information
about this annual event contact Dana or Wayne

Movie night, coffee
night, games night, maybe a trip to the beach?

I’ve heard a lot of “I wish…” comments lately
so I’m putting this out there! Do any of
these ideas interest you? Would you like
to get together and do them? Anyone in
grade 7 -12 who would like to get together and do any of these things, contact
Dana. Summer is almost over!

Young Adults

Looking for a super fun,
cheap night out? Join us Saturday,
September 10th for a Car Rally & Square Dance! It
will start at Ebenezer CRC in Leduc (South of Hwy 623 on RR 250) at 3:00 p.m.
Cost will be $15 per person. This CANYA event was a huge success last year so
register soon at www.canyouthministry.com and click “online
registration” to reserve your spot! For more information, contact Amy Stol at
780-952-6578.

Denominational
News

Disability Concerns:

The summer issue of Breaking Barriers, a quarterly resource with
stories and information for inclusion of people with disabilities in churches
and ministries, is now available online at www.crcna.org/disability. This issue features stories about
making meetings accessible.

Volunteers
Needed For Japan!

Christian Reformed World Missions and CRWRC are
looking for people interested in serving the people of Japan in the long
process of cleaning up their homes and communities after the earthquake and
tsunami of March 11th. Here is an opportunity to offer visible and tangible
expressions of Christ-like love to those who experienced such incredible
tragedies. Four teams of 4 - 7 people are being recruited for Sept. 3 – 16;
Sept. 16 – 30; Sept. 30 – Oct. 14 and Oct. 14 – 28. For further information
please contact ServiceLink ASAP at volunteer@crcna.org

The Persecuted Church

China

The chairman of the Chinese House Church Alliance,
Pastor Shi Enhao, has been sentenced to two years of "re-education through
labour," an extra-judicial punishment that is handed out by police and
requires no trial or conviction of a crime. He has been charged with
"illegal meetings and illegal organizing of venues for religious
meetings." This charge stems from the fact that Pastor Shi's large house
church of several thousand members meets in various different sites around the
city. Meanwhile, the police have ordered Pastor Shi's church to stop meeting
and has confiscated the congregation's car, musical instruments, choir robes
and 140,000 Yuan (approximately $20,900 CAD) in donations. Please pray
the Lord will protect and sustain Pastor Shi, his family and his congregation.
Pray they will keep their eyes on Jesus, persevere in their faith, and not grow
weary or lose heart (Hebrews 10:32-39; 12:1-3). Pray for Pastor Shi's release
and, in the meantime, that he will have opportunities to share the gospel in
prison